Certified quick response codes associated with top-level domains verified by trusted product certificate authority

ABSTRACT

A Certified Quick Response Code (“CQR”) is associated with a trusted Product Certificate Authority (“PCA”), which in turn is associated with a unique top-level domain (“TLD”). A CQR affixed to a product may point to a URL comprising the unique TLD. A consumer may know by virtue of the association of the TLD with the PCA that the product is legitimate, while a product manufacturer can better monitor counterfeit goods by further associating each CQR with a universal unique identifier.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/793,209, filed Jan. 16, 2019, and entitled “Certified Quick Response Codes Associated with Top-Level Domains Verified by Trust Protect Certificate Authority.” The contents of that application are relied on and incorporated by reference herein.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to certified Quick Response codes associated with top-level domains verified by a trusted product certificate authority.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Counterfeit, stolen, and diverted/gray market components and goods cost the economy approximately one dollar per day for every person on Earth. Counterfeit goods adversely impact brand reputations, hurt consumers, cause critical system failures, and fuel organized crime. Sophisticated counterfeiting techniques include unauthorized production overruns on the gray market from authorized contract manufacturers, full-device reverse engineering and reproduction in unauthorized factories, supply chain interdiction, and parts recycling and remarking. In short, consumer and manufacturer confidence in the authenticity of products bought and sold are at all-time lows.

Additionally, many products sold today bear on their labels two-dimensional barcodes, such as Quick Response codes (“QR codes”). QR codes are routinely scanned by consumers with smart devices that have cameras, or other QR code readers. QR codes have a number of important uses, such as enabling payment, simplifying website login procedures, or even marking gravestones. Consumers have been conditioned to scan QR codes without giving the QR codes a second thought.

This is problematic because QR codes may also point to a specific URL, such as the website of a product on which a QR code is affixed. A counterfeiter or other bad actor may modify the QR code on the product label to point the scanner to a URL that leads to a website containing malware. In addition to harming the consumer, this may harm the manufacturer of the product by denigrating its reputation and potentially sending representatives of the manufacturer to the same malware-infested website.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Accordingly, what is needed is a trusted QR code label that may also assist in counteracting counterfeiters. The present invention provides Certified QR Codes (“CQRs”). Product labels may contain a CQR that points to a website with a unique top-level domain (“TLD”) associated with a trusted Product Certificate Authority (“PCA”). The PCA may create a unique URL for each product containing a CQR, thus allowing for individualized tracking of products. At the same time, by virtue of the association with the PCA, a consumer may trust a URL obtained from a scanned CQR.

Thus, the PCA, through its TLD, becomes the trusted gatekeeper to legitimate product communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute part of this specification, illustrate some embodiments of the disclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary CQR.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates another exemplary embodiment of a method for detecting counterfeiting using CQRs comprising URLs with TLDs associated with PCAs.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary URL in accordance with the present method.

In the following sections, detailed descriptions of examples and methods of the disclosure will be given. The description of both preferred and alternative examples, though thorough, are exemplary only. It is understood to those skilled in the art that variations, modifications, and alterations may be apparent. It is therefore to be understood that the examples do not limit the broadness of the aspects of the underlying disclosure as defined by the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure provides generally for apparatus, methods and systems for affixing unique CQRs to respective products and associating the unique CQR with a certified top-level domain associated with a PCA to establish a system of trusted product communications and counterfeit tracking. The PCA may provide a unique TLD to ensure a consumer scanning a CQR that the consumer is, in fact, scanning a CQR (instead of a traditional QR code) and thus may trust the URL at the other end of the CQR. Note that this disclosure may describe CQRs as being part of (or the entirety of) a two-dimensional barcode; however, one schooled in the art will understand that the present disclosure applies with equal efficacy to three-dimensional barcodes.

In some embodiments, an incentive is provided to a user (such as a shopper) to scan a CQR. The incentive may include an artifact, such as a discount, a coupon, product specifications, product user manual or other CQR-specific information. Where previous product labels would use the same label design and label content for multiple disparate labels and therefore multiple disparate product units, the present invention provides for a unique label design and label content for each label and therefore each product unit.

A unique label on each product unit enables many useful advantages over more generic labeling systems. One advantage is that when a user scans a CQR and contacts an associated URL, an app on the user's smart device may send to the URL not only the CQR information, but also a time, date and location of a scan. In this manner, the present system includes inherent capabilities to ascertain the authenticity of a product at a quantified location as captured at a recorded time and date. Previous systems simply did not have the capability to provide such service.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a system in accordance with the present disclosure is shown. Consumer 110 may be interested in product 101. Product 101 may have a label with CQR 100 affixed to the label. In some embodiments, CQR 100 is unique to the particular product 101 (thus giving product 101 a unique label), while in other embodiments, CQR 100 may correspond to more than one manufactured version of the same product (e.g., all 20 ounce bottles of a particular brand of mayonnaise) or even to all products manufactured by a manufacturer (e.g., all mayonnaise manufactured by a particular manufacturer). CQR 100 may be a standard QR code (made unique by reference to a specialized, PCA-approved TLD, as described below) generated using known QR code-generating processes. Consumer 110 may scan CQR 100 with a scanner 111. Scanner 111 may be a smart device, such as a smart phone, or any other device comprising an image capture apparatus and in logical connection with a communications network 120 such as the Internet.

Unlike traditional QR codes, the URL associated with the CQR 100 may comprise a TLD associated with a trusted PCA. The PCA may be any organization, standards board, corporation, or other entity that users and manufacturers can agree is sufficiently trustworthy. Upon scanning CQR 100, scanner 111 can engage in communication with server 130 via a communications network 120. Server 130 receives the requested URL (which, as described later, may provide server 130 with additional information) and may return an artifact, such as a coupon or product specifications.

Suppose the PCA is a large, multi-national company trusted by most consumers in commerce. The PCA may create a unique TLD associated with it. For example, the TLD may be .PCA, or be based on the name of the PCA (e.g., if the PCA is LocatorX, Inc., then the TLD may be .lctrx). By way of example, suppose Olive Oil Co. (“OOC”) decides to address a counterfeit olive oil problem. OOC may contract with the PCA for the right to use the PCA's TLD. OOC may then have the right to affix CQRs such as CQR 100 on its olive oil bottles. In some embodiments, CQR 100 may simply point to a domain name like http://oliveoilco.pca. That the URL ends in .pca may assure the scanning consumer 110 that the scanned bottle of OOC olive oil is the genuine article. In some embodiments, the TLD may be a pseudo-domain, such as the one formerly used for Tor services. In some embodiments using pseudo-domains, a CQR scanner may be operable to interface with a network other than the Internet or the World Wide Web through a gateway. Such an embodiment may be desirable to add extra security features that may not be available through the publicly accessible Internet.

In some embodiments, each individual product may have a unique universal identifier (“UUID”) associated with it. The UUID may be generated by the Open Software Foundation or other trusted UUID generator. The UUID may comprise a global trade item number (known in the art as a “GTIN”). Accordingly, a CQR 100 may point to a more individualized URL for the particular product label scanned; for example, the CQR 100 may point to the URL oliveoilco.pca/UUID. In other embodiments, a hash code may be generated in addition to or instead of the UUID. Thus, the CQR 100 may point to oliveoilco.pca/hash or oliveoilco.pca/UUID&hash. Additionally, the URL and/or CQR 100 may comprise public-private key infrastructure (known in the art as “PKI”) information, such as a certification authentication information.

In further embodiments, the CQR 100 may have an additional dynamic value based on some characteristic of the consumer or product. For example, CQR 100 may point to oliveoilco.pca/UUID&hash&GPS_Location. While the UUID or hash may be encoded in the CQR 100 itself, a GPS_Location value may be based upon a GPS location of scanner 111 or an associated smart device. This may assist manufacturers in determining authenticity of products being offered for sale at a given location. It may also assist in locating counterfeit products because server 130 receives the GPS location of scanner 111 through an CQR scanner's transmission to the URL. And it may, in some embodiments, provide assurances to the end-user, as the dynamic values may provide data regarding the number of times the CQR has been scanned.

For illustration purposes, and by way of non-limiting example, if two bottles of a product item, such as olive oil, with a same UUID are scanned within a short timeframe at respective locations of considerable distance from each other, such as at opposite corners of a country, then the manufacturer may be able to infer that at least one of those bottles is a counterfeit. By having the benefit of the additional information encoded in the URL from a GPS Location value, the manufacturer may locate the counterfeit bottles. A GPS Location with an extensive history of potentially counterfeit products may warrant additional investigation. The website corresponding to the URL on the CQR 100 may also request the GPS location directly from the consumer's scanner 111 or retrieve the location of scanner 111 through image metadata, such as EXIF metadata. Similarly, even a single bottle of oil with an unrecognized UUID, or no UUID, may be flagged as unauthentic. Moreover, combining these inauthenticity data points in the aggregate may assist manufacturers in determining weaknesses in a supply chain, locations of common counterfeiters, and the like.

In some embodiments, each CQR 100 is a unique label for each product 101. Accordingly, a PCA may validate a manufacturer's domain name and provenance prior to creating CQRs to affix to the products. Again, the end-user (e.g., shopper) may have increased confidence in the authenticity of the product by virtue of the reference to the PCA.

In some embodiments, a CQR may include one half of a public/private key or other form of cryptography. Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, may be utilized in conjunction with a CQR as a cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys (public keys) which, are known only to the owner and may be included, for example within the CQR code. Public keys may be indicative of, or otherwise associated with certified TLD. The generation of such keys may be based upon cryptographic algorithms or otherwise associated with mathematical problems to produce one-way functions. Since effective security requires keeping a private key private; the private key may be encoded into a CQR and not readily ascertainable to a user. In some embodiments, the private key may be sent to the end-user by another method, such as an app. The public key indicative of or otherwise associated with the TLD may be openly distributed without compromising security.

In such a system, a manufacturer can encrypt a product label using the PCA's public key to ascertain the TLD, and also include an encrypted label portion that can be decrypted via a contacted URL recognizing private key also included in the label. Conversely, the private key may be used by the PCA to “sign” the CQR, and the end-user's public key may be used to verify authenticity.

Accordingly, the present invention teaches how a TLD may become a trusted gatekeeper to legitimate product information and also be a recipient of data indicative of fraudulent or otherwise unauthentic products on the market. By linking the TLDs with the PCA through the CQRs, more trusted commerce may occur.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an exemplary CQR is shown. CQR 200 points to the URL http://www.locatorx.pca. The TLD of this URL is .pca, which is associated with a trusted PCA. As described above, in some embodiments, the TLD may be based on the name of the particular PCA, such as .lctrx.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an exemplary method for tracking a product using the described CQRs is shown. At step 301, a CQR is generated. The CQR may be unique to the particular product being tracked (e.g., a particular bottle of olive oil), or to all products in a particular line (e.g., all 20 ounce bottles of OOC-brand mild olive oil). The CQR comprises an encoded URL that is decoded by a scanner, such as a smart device, that is capable of reading CQRs and is in logical connection with a communications network. The encoded URL comprises a protocol identifier (e.g., http://), a resource name (e.g., oliveoilco), and a TLD associated with a PCA (e.g., .pca or .lctrx). In some embodiments, the CQR further comprises a UUID, such as a GTIN. In some embodiments, the UUID is associated with a manufacturer's website. The CQR may be based on individualized certifications of a given product by the PCA, or the PCA may assign a batch of certifications to a series of CQRs.

At step 302, the two-dimensional barcode with the CQR is affixed to a product. The two-dimensional barcode may be printed concurrently with the product label or may be affixed subsequent to the printing of the product label.

At step 303, a request to access an artifact located on a server is received by the server in logical connection with a communications network. This request may occur when a consumer attempts to access the URL encoded on the CQR through the communications network. The artifact may be one or more of: a coupon, product specifications, or a product verification. The artifact requested from and/or sent by the server may be based on the URL encoded in the CQR. For example, a manufacturer might limit a coupon to only certain UUIDs. Alternatively, a hash may indicate a particular line of products (e.g., 20 ounce bottles of olive oil), and the corresponding transmitted product specifications (e.g., nutrition facts) may be based on that particular line of products.

Included in the request may be one or more geographic indices. For example, if the request is transmitted using a CQR scanning application (including a smart phone camera device, dedicated quick response code scanner, and the like), then image data associated with the scan may include metadata indicative of a geographical location. For example, the image data may include EXIF data or GPS coordinates. In such an embodiment, the geographic indices may be transmitted along with the request.

The server may associate a time index with the request. The server may also associate a geographic index with the request. Accordingly, the server may begin to populate a database in which, for each unique identifier (e.g., GTIN), a list of one or more times a CQR associated with the unique identifier has been scanned is logged. This may allow the server to track the movement of the product associated with the unique identifier through commerce. This may assist in detecting counterfeiting efforts. For example, if the log shows that a CQR has been scanned (i.e., the server has received artifact requests for) in Maine at time t=0, and then at time t=5 seconds, the CQR has been scanned in Arizona, then this may indicate counterfeiting. Such a situation would suggest that the CQR has been copied by a counterfeiter who is duplicating labels. In the aggregate, such disparities may show weaknesses in a supply chain, help identify counterfeiters, etc.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an exemplary method of detecting counterfeiting using TLDs as accessed through CQRs is shown. At step 401, a commerce item, such as a manufactured good, to be protected is identified. In exemplary embodiments, the commerce item may be a product intended to travel through commerce. The commerce item may be one that is susceptible to counterfeiting. For example, olive oil is a frequent target of counterfeiters because of the ease of deploying a substitute good (i.e., counterfeit olive oil) and deployed labels that may be easy to remove and copy. Similarly, jewelry, apparel, and pharmaceuticals may be targeted for similar reasons. In exemplary embodiments, the identified product may be one that is produced in a large batch, such that its labels are also produced in large batches. (Again, olive oil is a good, but not limiting, example of a batch-produced, batch-labeled product.)

At step 402, a unique identifier is generated that may serve as an authenticity qualifier. The unique identifier may carry some relation to a finite number of related products. For example, the unique identifier could include or be related to any of: a production run identifier, lot number, date (including an expiration date), quality control identifier, location of manufacture, manufacturer line, work shift manufactured, licensed area of sale, and the like. The unique identifier may also contain a relation to a global tracking ID number (i.e., a GTIN). Because it may be desirable to encode additional information into the unique identifier beyond just a GTIN, the unique identifier may, in some embodiments, include several concatenated identifiers. For example, a bottle of olive oil manufactured during production run 3/100, expiring on Jan. 1, 2025, and having GTIN 12345678 may have unique identifier number 00301012512345678 (i.e., a concatenation of 003 (production run), 010125 (expiration date), and 12345678 (GTIN)).

At step 403, a trusted TLD may be associated with product verification credentials. As stated elsewhere, the TLD may be verified by a PCA. The TLD may reflect the name of the PCA. The PCA may assist in generating labels for the commerce item and in verifying the accuracy of a URL encoded in a CQR. Product verification credentials may include any of the components of the unique identifier generated at step 402, along with a log tracking the progress in commerce and scans related to the commerce item.

At step 404, the TLD of the PCA is associated with URL components. Referring briefly to FIG. 5, a URL typically comprises a protocol identifier, a domain name 501, and a top-level domain 502. In some embodiments, the URL will further include path 503. A URL may also comprise additional information 505 relating to database queries 504 or locations in the database, such as queries 506, 507 (typically preceded by a question mark after a path name and linked to other queries with ampersands) and hashes 508. These variables may assist in the authentication process. Some of these queries and hashes may be pre-encoded on the label where they relate to information specific to the product (e.g., unique identifier). Other queries and hashes may be generated by virtue of a scan of the CQR, and appended to the URL, and transmitted to the server, where those queries and hashes relate to the scan itself (e.g., time stamp or GPS location).

Referring back to FIG. 4, at step 405, URL components are populated with unique identifier information. For example, a server receiving a query from a smart device initiated by a scan of a CQR may anticipate in the URL components like unique identifier number, GTIN, lot number, etc. Accordingly, in embodiments in which the unique identifier comprises only the GTIN, a URL encoded in a CQR may still transmit other identifying information, such as expiration date. For example, a URL encoded on a CQR could be oliveoilco.pca/oliveoil16?GTIN=12345678&lot_number=003. As will be discussed later, in some embodiments, a CQR scanner may append additional information to this URL prior to sending a query to oliveoilco.pca, such as a GPS location.

At step 406, a label is generated for the commerce item. The label may include traditional product information, such as brand name, size of the item, nutrition facts, etc. But the label will also include a CQR code comprising the encoded URL referencing the TLD of the PCA. A label including a CQR code may be generated contemporaneously with the product label or separately from the product label and attached to the product label (or elsewhere on the product).

At step 407, a server may receive a query based upon a scan of the CQR code by a smart device. In exemplary embodiments, the query will be transmitted through Internet Protocol, but it may also be transmitted telephonically, by Bluetooth, or through other direct means of communication associated with a smart device identifier (e.g., IP address, MAC address, telephone number, device name, etc.). In exemplary embodiments, then, the query is based on the encoded URL associated with the CQR code. In some embodiments, additional information may be appended to the encoded URL. For example, the encoded URL may further include a GPS location associated with the scan by the smart device of the CQR. In some embodiments, additional data may be transmitted along with the query. For example, in addition to sending a request to the server via the URL, the smart device may also send an image associated with a scan of the CQR. In such an embodiment, metadata associated with the image may also be recorded as datapoints at the server. For example, metadata may include any of: time of image capture, location of image capture, and specifications about the image-capture device (i.e., the smart phone itself and information about its user).

At step 408, based on the query, the server may transmit to the smart device via the smart device identifier a desired artifact. The artifact may include any of: a coupon, a discount, product specifications, product verification information (for example, as by a unique identifier), a recipe, or other information that a consumer may desire relating to a product. And at steps 409 and 410, the query is logged, along with a time, date, and location associated with the query, the server response to the query, the smart device receipt of the query, or action occurring based on the artifact.

At step 411, the server may compare the logged query with previous queries associated with the unique identifier associated with the commerce item. For example, the server may check to see if the same unique identifier has been queried before. If so, the server may compare attributes between the queries, such as the location, time, and smart-device identifier associated with the query. A threat of counterfeiting may be logged based on threshold differences between the attributes associated with the two queries. For example, if the server receives a query associated with an olive oil bottle having GTIN 00000001 at 12:00 EST on Jan. 1, 2020 in Florida, and then receives a query associated with an olive oil bottle having GTIN 00000001 at 12:05 EST on Jan. 1, 2020 in Idaho, then there may be a possibility of counterfeiting (by, for example, theft and copying of the olive oil label containing the CQR). This may be determined due the distance between the two scans exceeding a threshold distance under a threshold amount of time. This is merely a non-limiting example of how to use the present system to detect counterfeiting; other examples will be plain to one of ordinary skill. As an alternative example, in response to the query, the server may transmit to the smart device a coupon including a unique identifier associated with the unique identifier of the product. If it is detected that the same coupon is used multiple times, then that may also indicate counterfeiting. Similarly, duplicate queries may also be indicative of counterfeiting.

At step 412, based on an indication of counterfeiting, the database may generate a counterfeit-warning flag and transmit an alert to an interested party (e.g., the manufacturer, distributor, commerce monitor, law enforcement, relevant consumers, etc.). Moreover, the counterfeit flag may be used to deploy a “honey trap” to provide additional evidence relating to the identity of the counterfeiters. For example, at optional step 413, based on a determination of a potential counterfeit, the originally desired artifact may be transmitted to the smart device that scanned the CQR. If the artifact is a coupon, then the user of the smart device may be prompted to enter an email address or other personally identifying information to use the coupon. By aggregating information about the users of coupons associated with counterfeit flags, weaknesses in the supply chain, vendors aiding counterfeiting, or other vulnerabilities to counterfeiting may be more easily detected. Similarly, if the unique identifier comprises information about a permissible licensed area in which to sell the goods, an artifact transmitted and used outside that licensed area may also assist in counterfeit detection.

Particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order shown, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed invention.

Although the present invention has generally been described with reference to the apparatus involved and functionality, the present invention also includes associated method steps for bringing the functionality described into effect.

The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include”, “including”, and “includes” mean including but not limited to. To facilitate understanding, like reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate like elements common to the figures.

The phrases “at least one”, “one or more”, and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C”, “at least one of A, B, or C”, “one or more of A, B, and C”, “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together.

The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted the terms “comprising”, “including”, and “having” can be used interchangeably.

Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in combination in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

Similarly, while method steps may be depicted in the drawings in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in a sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results.

Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in combination in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

Moreover, the separation of various system components in the embodiments described above should not be understood as requiring such separation in all embodiments, and it should be understood that the described program components and systems can generally be integrated together in a single software product or packaged into multiple software products.

Thus, particular embodiments of the subject matter have been described. Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. In some cases, the actions recited in the claims can be performed in a different order and still achieve desirable results. In addition, the processes depicted in the accompanying figures do not necessarily require the particular order show, or sequential order, to achieve desirable results. In certain implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed disclosure.

In certain implementations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Nevertheless, it will be understood that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed disclosure. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for verifying a commerce good authenticity, the method comprising the steps of: associating a unique identifier with a commerce good; designating an authenticity qualifier with the commerce good; associating a product certificate authority with the authenticity qualifier; generating an internet protocol uniform resource locator comprising a domain name and a top level domain and a path; generating a quick response code (“QR code”) comprising the unique identifier and the domain name and the top level domain and the path; generating a label comprising the QR code; affixing the label comprising the brand and the QR code to the commerce good; and receiving into a computer server accessible via a communications network, a request to receive an artifact accessible by the server, the request comprising unique identifier and the domain name and the top level domain and the path and an information string generated by a smart device scanning the QR code affixed to the commerce good.
 2. The method of claim 1 additionally comprising the step of transmitting the artifact via the communications network to the smart device scanning the QR code.
 3. The method of claim 2 additionally comprising the step of receiving into the computer server via the information string generated by a smart device, a set of global positioning system (GPS) coordinates; a time of scan of the QR code and a date of scan of the QR code.
 4. The method of claim 2 additionally comprising the step of generating a log comprising multiple GPS coordinates and time stamps associated with the unique identifier.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the QR code further comprises a brand associated with the commerce good.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the path comprises a product type associated with the brand of the commerce good.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of associating the unique identifier with a website associated with a manufacturer of the commerce good.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: associating the unique identifier and the domain name and the top level domain with a product certificate authority and transmitting a certification from the product certificate authority to the smart device.
 9. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of receiving an internet protocol address in the information string generated by the smart device.
 10. The method of claim 7 further comprising the steps of receiving a cellular number in the information string generated by the smart device.
 11. A commerce good label for verifying authenticity of a commerce good to which the commerce good label is attached, the commerce good label comprising: a QR code readable from a medium affixed to the commerce good, the QR code comprising an encoded URL including a protocol identifier, a resource name, a top-level domain associated with a product certificate authority; a universally unique identifier associated; a hash value; and a dynamic value.
 12. A method for tracking products in commerce, the method comprising the steps of: generating a QR code comprising an encoded URL, wherein the encoded URL comprises a protocol identifier, a resource name, and a top-level domain, wherein the top-level domain is associated with a product certificate authority; certifying, through the product certificate authority, the authenticity of an artifact located at the URL; affixing the QR code to a product; and receiving into a server a request to access an artifact located on the server, wherein the server is in logical connection with a communications network and comprises a processor, a memory storing the artifact, and software executable on command, and wherein the request comprises a notification that a smart device in logical communication with the communications network has accessed the URL via the communications network.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein the QR code further comprises a universal unique identifier associated with the product.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the universal unique identifier is a global trade item number.
 15. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of associating the universal unique identifier with a manufacturer website.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the step of: associating the receipt into the server of the request to access the artifact with a time index and the universal unique identifier.
 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of generating a log of time indexes associated with the universal unique identifier.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of receiving into the server a request to access an artifact further comprises receiving into the server a geographical index based on the request, and wherein the geographical index is associated with the time index and the universal unique identifier.
 19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of transmitting from the server to a smart device a counterfeit notification based on a comparison of the differences in the time indexes in the log and the differences in the geographical indexes in the log.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the geographical index is based on geographical information associated with a scan of the QR code 